Falconeye Review 10: Metroid Prime
Well guys, thank you for your patience. I'm finally getting to my review of Metroid Prime for the Nintendo Gamecube. Now, before I get to the review, allow me to give a little back story. When this title was first announced, it revealed, it was given very negative criticizing because of the FPS approach. However, when it was released, all that negativity instantly dissapeared. Now without further ado, here's the... Plot Samus Aran recieves a distress signal from a nearby Space Pirate vessel. Upon arriving, she kills the parasite queen, which triggers a self destruct sequence. On her way back to her ship, Samus gets caught in an explosion, which destroys most of her gear, but if you've been playing Metroid as long as I have, you should be used to this by now. She escapes and follows a newly resurected Meta-Ridley to the nearby planet of Tallon IV. Their, she discovers that the Space Pirates are researching a substance known as Phazon, which is highly radioactive and can mutate whatever it touches... including Metroids, of course. She eventually defeats Meta-Ridley and travels to the Impact Crater, the source of all of Tallon IV's Phazon. There, she finds Metroid Prime, which upon defeating, blows up the impact crater. Sadly, this explosion doesn't destroy the whole planet, so don't be expecting this game to feature the first explosion in Metroid that isn't 8-Bit. We'll have to wait for Fusion for that. Gameplay You play as Samus in the first person perspective. And, though it may look like a FPS game, the driving force of this game, like all other Metroid games, is the puzzle solving, not shooting. I'm not going to go too far into the gameplay, but here's a list of Samus' gear. The Power Suit This is definently the most advanced power suit in the Metroid series until Other M. The Beams Samus has several beams built into her arm cannon. Some beams are required to advance to certain areas or defeat certain enemies. Power Beam: This beam is your default weapon. It has the fastest firing rate, but is the weakest of all your beams. Charge Beam: This isn't really a seperate weapon, it just allows you to charge up your beams for a more powerful shot. Wave Beam: This beam sadly no longer goes through walls, but it's slightly more powerful than the Power Beam and it has the same rapid fire rate. Ice Beam: This beam now is like a shot gun in firing rate, but it's pretty powerful and is definently worth getting. Plasma Beam: This is your most powerful beam weapon. It's totally heat based, and has a decent firing rate, somewhere between the power beam and th Ice Beam. Missle Launcher: By pressing the Y button, Samus will launch a homing missle, which are used to open certain doors or destroy certain objects Beam Combos Along your journey, you'll find beam combos, which use missles. Super Missles: These are more powerful than regular missles, put they take up five missles. Wavebuster: The Wavebuster (lame pun) basically turns Samus into a ghostbuster. However, it wastes missles as long as you use it, so I only use it when I feel it's absolutely nessesarry, or I'm feeling extremely gun-happy. Ice Spreader: This makes ice go all over the screen and it uses 10 missles. I like this one because I feel like one of the Frost Giants form Thor. Flamethrower: I rarely used this one. I mean really, what flamethrower is powered by missles? Morph Ball The Morph ball allows Samus to curl up into a ball 1 meter in diameter to get through tight places... but... is Samus pure energy in this form? If you look close enough, you know what I mean. Bombs: Samus can lay bombs in this mode that blow up certain objects and allow her to jump. Power Bombs: These monsters practically blow up the entire screen. Sadly, you need to collect these because they don't regenerate like regular bombs do. Spider Ball: This allows Samus to cling to magnetic rails. Boost Ball: It allows Samus to go faster, boring. Suits There are several suit upgrades that you can get in this game. Varia Suit: This suit protects Samus form intense heat. It's essential for Magmoor Caverns. Gravity Suit: This allows Samus to move and see better underwater, which... I think the name is kind of... misleading. IDK, whatever. Phazon Suit: After you defeat the Omega Pirate, it spews out all it's phazon on you, which corrupts your power suit, but it protects you from Phazon and, later, gives you Hyper Mode, which I thought was pretty awesome until Prime 3: Corruption came out. Misc. Space Jump Boots: These give Samus a double jump. Good Aspects Everything Metroid fans love about he 2D games is present in stunning 3D. The first person perspective is really enjoyable. Oh, and don't get me started on the graphics. This may be the best looking game Nintendo has ever published, better than most, if not all Wii games to date. I really hope they re-release this on the Wii U. so we can see how the graphics look in HD. Bad Aspects Not too much to say. The bosses in this game are either extremely easy or frustrating. The mother Sheegoth was constantly owning me (until I learned the bomb trick) and I was constantly getting killed by Meta-Ridley. Surprisingly the Omega Pirate didn't give me too much trouble. The final boss isn't really hard, it just has a lot of health and takes a long time to beat. I also don't like that you can't jump in morph ball mode without using bombs. And also... wait... where's the screw attack? You've got to be kidding me. So you have a flamethrower, but no screw attack!!!? That was the best move in the original games!!!! Why would you take it out!!!? Family Friendliness Though it's rated T, it's really not too bad. It has an FPS layout, but puzzle solving really is the driving force in this game. There's no bad language (actually, there's no dialouge at all), the violence is kept to a minimum, though occasionally an animals venom will spatter all over Samus' visor, which can be a little unsettling. And then there's the undead Chozos I mentioned earlier. Ages 10 and up. Conclusion Metroid Prime for the Gamecube is probably the best game I've ever played, maybe better than Super Smash Bros. Brawl, yep, I just said that. With great graphics, fun gameplay and great mucis, I'll give it a 9.5/10 with the title of INCREDIBLE!! What's Next? Next I will be starting my classic game reviews. Look forward to an update on what I'm doing first, how I'm doing it, and when I'm doing it.